As reported by the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference on 12/12/12 (the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe), "Governor Corbett announced...that Pennsylvania will not set up its own health insurance exchanges under the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) [i.e., "Obamacare"]....The Catholic Church has long and consistently advocated for the reform of the American health care system....Yet concerns raised during the health care reform debate about conscience protection and coverage of elective abortion are not resolved. Without a state exchange, Pennsylvanians who qualify will be enrolled in the federal exchange, which will cover elective abortions....If Pennsylvania had created its own exchange, it would have been able to opt out of this abortion coverage."
The Pennsylvania Catholic Conference (12/13/12) subsequently showed itself to have been disturbingly ill prepared for the governor's announcement: "it appears that a legislative remedy can be found to assure that the federally administered insurance exchange can exclude elective abortion coverage.... The PCC will continue to monitor the developments on this issue and will post updates as they are available. Please click here to send a message to your representatives in support of legislation that removes taxpayer funded abortions from health insurance exchanges." Instead of facilitating contacts with members of the U.S. house and U.S. senators, that link sets up personalized emails for the governor, state rep, and state senator:
- "Please pass legislation that prohibits insurance providers that participate in the insurance exchanges created by the federal health care reform law from covering elective abortion services.
"Favorable votes were taken in both chambers last session, indicating widespread support, but the bill did not make it to final passage.
"Taxpayer money should not fund abortions, please represent me by passing this legislation early in the 2013-2014 session!"
- A future governor CAN decide that she/he wants a state health exchange. "Pro life" majorities in the Pennsylvania house and senate, as well as our "pro life" governor, have failed miserably in preventing abortion funding.
- At this time, it is challenging to believe that a federal "legislative remedy can be found to assure that the federally administered insurance exchange can exclude elective abortion coverage." What motivation would the Obama Administration now have to be conciliatory? I will pray that I am wrong, and I will pray for the conversion of our president.
Governor Corbett's announcement was predictable and certainly should not have taken the Church by surprise. We desperately need more and better research by both the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. At an absolute minimum, the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference should be giving as much attention to sanctity of life issues and marriage/family issues, as it does to school choice legislation.
The Pennsylvania Catholic Conference's automated email states: "Favorable votes were taken in both chambers last session, indicating widespread support, but the bill did not make it to final passage." That is quite an understatement! Pennsylvania Senate Bill 3 was designed to prevent tax payer funding of at least some "Obamacare" abortions. After passing the Senate on 6/7/11, things looked good, provided that SB 3 passed the House, as Governor Corbett promised his signature.
Instead of just running SB 3, an identical bill - HB 1977 - was put up in the House and passed on 12/12/11. Instead of reconciling SB 3 and HB 1977, it appears in retrospect that "pro life" Republicans in the house, senate, and governor's house subsequently played a shell game.
Rather than send sycophantic emails to the governor & Pennsylvania legislators, shouldn't we demand that they live up to their commitments by holding a special session for the House to vote on SB 3 and get it into Corbett's hands for a signature? We need our bishops to lead this charge!
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